Even as Pak foreign secy extended his outreach to world leaders, Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid seemed out of sync with what the correct diplomatic response should have been.

This is not the first time that Islamabad has out-manoeuvered New Delhi.

Mounting a diplomatic offensive, Pakistan's foreign secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani on Friday briefed European envoys on the situation along the Line of Control (LoC).

He also met US Ambassador Richard Olson to discuss the issue. Jilani contended that the envoys of the US and European countries were concerned about the situation along the LoC. "I'm sure they will play a positive role in de-escalating the current situation," he said upping the ante.

Scoring a diplomatic point, he asked India "to thoroughly investigate the repeated violations of the ceasefire along the LoC by Indian troops", and renewed the offer to hold an independent inquiry into recent ceasefire violations through the United Nations Military Observers Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP).

This was countered by the MEA, which reiterated India's position that it was capable of resolving the issue bilaterally and again rejected the role of any third party.

In denial, Jilani had summoned the Indian High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal to the foreign office and lodged a "strong protest on the repeated, unacceptable and unprovoked attacks on Pakistani soldiers by the Indian Army".

In contrast to India's summoning of its envoy on Wednesday, this was the second time the Indian diplomat was summoned, twice within a week to build pressure on India. Earlier this week India's deputy high commissioner Gopal Bagley was summoned and served a demarche.

The Pakistani foreign secretary asked India to "thoroughly investigate the repeated violations of the ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) by Indian troops", reiterating the offer to hold an independent inquiry through the UNMOGIP.

This is not the first time that Islamabad has out-manoeuvered New Delhi to put the tag of aggressor on India while playing the victim.

"Look at the whole history of our reaction to Pakistan, the joint terror mechanism, the Sharm El Sheikh declaration we have been finding excuses for Pakistan, that things are going well. What have we got from them be it on the 26/11 attacks? Pakistan is trying to provoke India and they want to internationalise the issue because they are the president of the UN Security Council and the army wants to get to centre stage of the Pakistani politics," said former secretary MEA, Rajiv Sikri.

It was deja vu on January 11 when, as the sense of outrage over the brutality was building up in South Block, foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai's advice to his officials in the Pakistan division of foreign office was that diplomats don't do things with passion but have to give a calm response and not escalate matters.

Perhaps an advice he learnt in the good old school of diplomacy. But when the adversary on the other side is a slippery state like Pakistan, often a calm response is mistaken as weakness. And that is how India's weak-kneed diplomatic response to the brutal killing of its two soldiers is being seen.

Sources said that the attempt was to ensure that the crisis did not spiral out of control. That's the reason the Prime Minister's Office that largely runs the Pakistan policy stepped in with a restraining order. But with Pakistan quick with its denials and posturing in front of the cameras India was left with a lame diplomatic response.

Even the External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid seemed out of sync with what the correct diplomatic response should have been.

"I think the External Affairs Minister's statement where he said that we are waiting for an appropriate response from Pakistan, what response will they give except to deny it, was like that of an amateur. The minister is the foreign office and he needs to reflect on what he said," commented Vivek Katju, a former secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs who also headed the Foreign Office's Pakistan desk during the Agra Summit.

Said former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal, "We have not taken any concrete step besides calling in their high commissioner. They have stopped LoC trade, this shows our weakness and our inability to convey to Pakistan there will be cost attached if they do such a provocative act."

"They know that Indian choices are limited and therefore they can get away with this. they want to build the morale of the Pakistani army by showing that India can be helpless in these situations," Sibal added.